Language development through games

Supervisor: Dr Danijela Trenkic

A) Rationale for the project

International students now play an important part in many UK universities but many struggle with the linguistic demands of their programmes and fail to achieve their full potential. Previous research has shown that reading for pleasure improves broad language skills and leads to improved educational outcomes. This project considers whether text-oriented games such as Disco Elysium, Heaven's vault or 80 Days could be used to motivate international students to read more English text, and how playing such games could improve their language skills and educational outcomes.

B) References that should be read

Daller, M., & Phelan, D. (2013). Predicting international student study success. Applied Linguistics Review, 4, 173–193.

Day, R.R. 2010. The benefits of extensive reading (ER).

Green, C. (2005). Integrating extensive reading in the task-based curriculum. ELT Journal, 59, 306–311.
Horst, M., Cobb, T., & Meara,P. (1998). Beyond a Clockwork Orange: Acquiring second language vocabulary through reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 11, 207-223.

Iannelli, C., & Huang, J. (2014). Trends in participation and attainment of Chinese students in UK higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 39, 805–822.

Morrison, J., Merrick, B., Higgs, S., & Le Métais, J. (2005). Researching the performance of international students in the UK. Studies in Higher Education, 30, 327–337.

Trenkic, D. & Warmington, M. (2019). Language and literacy skills of home and international university students: How different are they, and does it matter? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 22, 349-365.

C) Research aims / questions

Can playing interactive fiction games improve students’ English language skills?

D) Methods

A longitudinal study with a pretest-intervention-posttest design.